I’m reading a wonderful book by Nancy Pearcey called Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning. You can tell she was deeply influenced by the great Francis Schaeffer as she weaves the implications of thought through history and expertly ties them to the consequences that inevitably follow. If we are not “thinking God’s thoughts after him,” in the words of Johannes Kepler, they will lead to destruction, and there is plenty of evidence of that as she details in the book. I want to quote a section of a chapter called “Meaningless Materialism” because it is brilliant. Every Christian in our secular age needs to understand what she’s saying about materialism, and its inherent weakness, it’s pathetically inherent weakness. Since the so-called Enlightenment, Christians have been on the defensive about the ultimate spiritual nature of reality; materialism reigns in secular cultures. But it is materialists who must defend their materialism, but they can’t. So they mostly don’t try; we ought not to let them get away with that. We can have every confidence that the Christian view of reality is infinitely more plausible, and defensible, than the materialists view. I encourage you to take the time to read Nancy closely, and understand her argument; it is faultless.
The subject of this post might sound slightly familiar. It comes from a statement on the other side of the metaphysical divide from world-famous atheist Richard Dawkins who said that, “Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” What Darwin actually did was to give atheists an excuse to reject their Creator by denying he even exists. Atheists, however, are increasingly fighting a losing battle as scientific knowledge advances. Every day it becomes more difficult to deny that nature appears to have been designed and could be not a product of chance. Even Dawkins himself said nature has the appearance of design, but Darwin allows him to be blind to that design all the while claiming the mantel of “science.” And now we know in the age of COVID that “science” is often used as an ideological cudgel to silence anyone who disagrees with the standard narrative of our cultural elites. (more…)
If you’re not familiar with the name Dawkins, that would be the world’s most famous atheist, Richard Dawkins. He along with several others earlier in the century were Christened (pun intended) by the media as the New Atheists. There was nothing new about them, just stale, warmed over question-begging arguments that made their atheism seem a desperate attempt to convince themselves. I once tried to read Dawkins The God Delusion, and it was so painful to read I couldn’t make myself finish. If you want to strengthen your faith, I would suggest slogging your way through that book, but you have been warned.
So, when I saw the title of the post at Evolution News, I had to see how someone like staunch, atheist materialist Richard Dawkins could be knocked “sideways with wonder” by the cell. This is the same Dawkins, by the way, who has famously said that the universe indeed has the appearance of design, but that, in my words, it is just an illusion. It is all random, chance, and matter that explains everything, including the cell. You tell me as you watch this short video, what is a better explanation for the cell, Dawkins’ random, chance, and matter, or the Almighty Creator God of Judaism and Christianity:
If you haven’t had a chance to read my book yet, shame on you, it’s officially become an international best-seller. I recently sat down, virtually, with a new Canadian friend of mine, Ian McKerracher for a chat about the book on the Faith Beyond Belief Podcast. Although we’re on the same continent, Canada is officially international, so I am now an internationally best-selling author! Well, I am an author, internationally best-selling, not so much. If you do listen to the discussion, which was a blast, I trust it will compel you to buy a copy so you can dig into why I’m so persuasive, and why you can be too! Seriously, all hype and hyperbole aside, it is mind-blowing how God’s provision enables us to so confidently build an enduring faith in us and our children, if we have them. As I quote on the cover and in the book, C.S. Lewis tells us why Christianity helps us do that by making sense of everything:
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
We call that explanatory power, and no worldview, religion, or philosophy comes remotely close to Christianity in having such power. Praise be to God!
I’ve been a Christian for more than 42 years, and I am more blown away by the grace, mercy, and love of God in Christ than I have ever been. It continually astounds me how God in Christ can take lives wrecked by sin and guilt and shame, and turn them into something beautiful for their good and his glory. Some time last year I started listening to conversion testimonies I found online, and it’s been enlightening, to say the least. I’ve written about this previously, but I used to think testimonies were of limited value because they were essentially subjective, about a person’s experience of God, and not based on the objective truth revealed to us in Scripture. I no longer believe that because God’s work in his people’s lives is amazingly revelatory. And in every testimony I’ve heard salvation is accompanied by a desire to read the Bible and go to church. Experiences that don’t drive people to God’s word and God’s people are not from God. (more…)
There are been some silver linings in this COVID Scam-demic for me (these interviews on Steve Bannon’s War Room is why I believe that). One is that my mind has been open to some things I wasn’t open to before. (I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks!) For instance, I’ve always thought of organic as a fad and a waste of money. Now I’m not so sure. I wasn’t much for supplements, but now I am. I was not sure about vaccines before, but now I’m officially an “anti-vaxxer.” I used to buy into whatever the medical establishment said, and now it’s hard to trust much of anything they say. I used to never like when people used the phrase, “Big Pharma,” and now I get it. I’m grateful for many of the things “Big Pharma” does, but I no longer trust that they are disinterested parties in pursuit of the greater health of mankind. It would be easy for me to become a full-on cynic, but I can’t go there. There are many decent and well-meaning people caught up in things much larger than themselves, cogs in the wheel as it were, and they just go in the direction the train is already traveling. (more…)
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